'Cheap sarcasm,' said Miss Simon, 'is no argument. And I don't blame any woman for using what means she's got. There are times when a woman's _got_ to forget herself.' Kate said, 'I don't think a woman's _ever_ got to forget herself,' and there was a murmur of applause. Alix giggled. She wondered if social evenings at Violette were often like this. 'You don't understand,' said the round-faced girl helplessly. '_You_ may be all right, in your station of life, but you've got to look at other women's--the poor. We've got to do something about the poor. The vote would help us.' 'There have always,' said Mrs. Frampton, 'been the poor, and there always will be.' 'That's just why,' suggested Alix, momentarily joining in, 'it might be worth while to do something about them.' Miss Simon looked at her in sudden gratitude; she had a misplaced and soon-quenched hope that this seemingly indifferent and amused girl might prove an ally. Kate said, placidly, 'Well, they say that if you were to take a lot of men and women and give them all the same money, they'd all be quite different again to-morrow....' Mrs. Frampton added that she went by the Bible. 'The poor ye shall have always with you.' 'Mrs. Frampton, it doesn't say that. And even if it did--well, it's as Miss Sandomir says, it's all the more reason for thinking about them. Anyhow, you can't take the Bible that way; it's nothing to _do_ with it.' 'It's the plain word of God, and that's sufficient for me,' said Mrs. Frampton repressively. Vincent Vinney, tired of the poor, who are indeed exhausting, regarded in the mass as a subject for contemplation, brought the discussion back to women. 'What I'd like to know is, where is a woman to get her knowledge from, if she's to help in public affairs? A man can pick up things at his work and his club, but a woman working in the house all day has no time even to read the papers. And if she did, her husband wouldn't like her to start having opinions, perhaps different to his. There are far too many divorces and separations already because husbands and wives go different ways, and it would be worse than ever. Eh, Flossie?' Mrs. Frampton said, 'We heard of a woman only last month who went out to a public meeting--something about foreign politics, I think it was--and her baby fell on to the fire and was burnt to a cinder, poor little love.' 'Well, she might just as likely have been going out shopping.' 'But she wasn't,' said Kate conclusively. 'I don't think,' said Mrs. Frampton, 'that a woman desires any more than her home and her husband and children, if she's a proper woman.' Evie's contribution was, 'Well, I must say I do prefer men to girls, and I don't mind saying so.' Sid's was, 'I heard of a man whose wife took to talking about politics, and he hung his coat to one peg in her wardrobe and his trousers to another, and he said, 'Now, Eliza, which will you wear?'